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Blazing Speed in the Pool

The US Open, NCAA, SEC, and American records were all broken in the 50 SCY Free yesterday at the SEC championships.

Caeleb Dressel – an 18 year old (EIGHTEEN) kid from Jacksonville, who swims for the University of Florida – went a crazy-fast 18.23 seconds in the finals, breaking his own record of 18.39 seconds (set during morning preliminies yesterday).

You can watch the video of this amazing speed below. Caeleb is in lane 4.

This time is wicked fast.

For comparison purposes, this swim – if considered in a non-swimming context – is sort of like a NFL running back going 4.0 seconds in the 40 yard dash. Or a golfer making two holes-in-one in a row. Or a baseball pitcher throwing a 110mph fastball. Basically, it’s off the chart.

After watching this last night, I thought comparing Dressel’s time to my personal swimming ability might be fun. It’s actually very humbling.

During my swim workout last night, I was turning 100 yards in 1:20. That equates to about 20 seconds per 25 yards. Caeleb covered TWICE that distance, and still beat me by the equivalent of a body length or so. Said differently, I could race Caeleb where I’d swim 25 yards and he’d swim 50 yards – and he would win. Handily. Easily.

It’s mind boggling to me how fast that is. And frankly, I suspect he’ll go faster. Word has it that Caeleb was not shaved and tapered. I don’t think he was wearing a speed suit. He’s saving all that for the NCAA meet next month. How fast will he go? You never know, but my money is that he becomes the first sub-18 second swimmer ever. I’m calling it now: 17.92 will be his finals time at NCAA.